Why familiarise?

Becoming familiar with the field location is a topic within anthropology that has been widely discussed over the years and is thought to aid the quality of ethnographic outputs. Components of familiarisation are also at times used as good practice within other research strategies. This update will explore how familiarisation can aid a range of research strategies to enhance the quality of data that are collected.</p

Ethnography, ethics and ownership of data

© The Author(s) 2019. Establishing trust and obtaining informed consent with participants is reliant upon on a process whereby unequally positioned agents constantly re-negotiate (mis)trust and consent during ethnographic encounters. All research has been increasingly subject to an intensification in ethical regulation, within a context whereby Eurocentric norms and ethical guidelines arguably diminish individual accountability under the guise of quasi-contractual relationships. This phenomenon has particular implications for ethnography and its management of ethics, given its intimate, longitudinal and receptive nature. Two expert ethnographers working with children and young people draw upon their work to reveal how issues of informed consent and data ownership can shift and be a source of tension and unequal power dynamics. The ethnographer requires autonomy while managing ethics soundly in situ to work within the messiness and unpredictability of participants’ everyday lives

Exploring young children's gendered discourses about skin colour

Drawing on an ethnographic study conducted with young children (4–5 year olds) in a multi-ethnic Early Years classroom in the north of England this paper shows how young children’s discourses about skin colour are informed by intersections with their gender identities. This ethnography uncovers how young children engage with the related concepts of ‘race’/ethnicity, racialisation and racism in their peer interactions alongside how they appropriate ‘markers of difference’ to promote their own identity and ascribe an identity to their peers. By comparing the discourses collectively produced by two groups of children in the class this study argues that there is a need for whiteness to be educationally discoursed in a way that uncovers the violence of racism and exposes the cultural and political privileges of ‘being white.

Exploring how young children conceptualise ethnic difference and operationalise identity

Based on a presentation at LSE Africa seminar series, Ruth Barley of Sheffield Hallam University analyses how young children process ethnic diversity

Supporting young children in multi-lingual settings

Following on from last month's article, Ruth Barley explores children's views on culture and identity, and how home or first language plays a significant role when it comes to defining friendship groups

Participatory visual methods: exploring young people’s identities, hopes and feelings

Using visual ethnography as a participatory method that places children’s and young people’s everyday experiences at the centre of research is discussed in this paper. The strengths and challenges of using participatory visual methods as a way of eliciting the thoughts, feelings and identities of young people within various education and training contexts in England are presented through the reflection of two ethnographies’ that encouraged the use of participatory visual techniques to facilitate the gathering of data. Participatory visual approaches capture meaningful child-centred and child-generated perspectives of their everyday lives in situ (Oh 2012). The participatory visual method is a powerful instrument within the plethora of methods available to the ethnographer. By offering reflexive accounts of doing ethnography in an unobtrusive and child respectful way the power of ethnography is revealed via its versatility

‘The naughty person’: exploring dynamic aspects of identity and children’s discourses before and during the Libyan Uprising

This paper draws on data from an ethnography exploring young children’s interactions in a multi-ethnic school in an urban area in the North of England. It focuses on the ways in which children explore and negotiate their identities against the shifting backdrop of local and global discourses about religion, race, gender and political change. In particular, we explore how children of the Libyan diaspora take up the semiotic resources available to them in their daily negotiations about identity. We show how through their spoken interactions, drawings and writings the children perform identities dialogically, with each other and with adult professionals, talking about salient issues of religious, cultural and national heritage before and during the Libyan Uprising in 2011. Using MacFarlane’s (2007) concept of ‘translocal assemblages’ we show how discourses and media narratives that circulate amongst diasporic communities provide a set of resources that children use to make sense of themselves in local contexts

Ethnographic research: a significant context for engaging young children in dialogues about adults’ writing

This paper brings together socio-cultural theorising about language and literacy learning as well as work which explores ethical issues associated with young children’s participation in research in order to interrogate unplanned discussions between researchers and young children about research writing. The data discussed were derived from two separate ethnographic research projects conducted in English early childhood settings. We argue that dialogues between child participants and adult-researchers are replete with opportunities for learning about researchers’ writing practices and constitute an important ethical research practice in itself. Our key areas of analysis focus on what children can learn about adults’ research writing and what researchers can learn about children as research participants. By positioning such dialogues within broader considerations around ethical research practice and children’s participation we add to the burgeoning literature in this area

A Mixed-Method Investigation into Therapeutic Yoga as an Adjunctive Treatment for People Recovering from Substance Use Disorders

© 2020, The Author(s). Mind Body Connect (MBC) is a charity which uses therapeutic yoga as a vehicle of change for marginalized populations. Alongside MBC, Sheffield Hallam University’s SHU Strength researchers carried out this study aiming to: (1) Gauge the impact of therapeutic yoga classes upon the mood state of people with a Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and (2) Explore the perceived benefits of therapeutic yoga class participation. An adapted shortened Profile of Mood States (POMS) was completed before and after each yoga class. A comparison of means with paired sample T-Test and Cohen’s D was then carried out. Participants who attended 6+ classes were interviewed. Findings were then converged. Before and after measurements of anger, sadness, tiredness, worry, confusion, energy and relaxation were taken, Classes were held at SHU for service users from a Phoenix Future’s (PF) rehabilitation centre. A single yoga class significantly relaxed participants and reduced negative mood states. Interview data covered a range of perceived benefits including the use of yogic down-regulation techniques as daily coping strategies. The MBC yoga programme appears beneficial as an adjunctive therapy for PF residents. Future SHU Strength research shall focus on the mid-long-term exercise habits of the recovery community and the impact of the MBC yoga programme upon the early recovery period of detoxification

Ethics, Education and Ethnography; working with young people and children

Ethnography is one of the most responsive research methodologies and research products within educational research; it is also one of the most contested. There are continual debates about how educational ethnographies should be conducted and presented (Walford, 2008). Not only does ethnography incorporate a wide array of methodologies, but educational ethnographers themselves are situated in the practical domain of the everyday life where the course of predicting ethically sound research practise is to some degree challenging. The ethnographer is forced to respond to the process itself rather than being situationally forged prior to its conduct (Dennis, 2010). This paper attempts to address the dearth in knowledge regarding the exploration of ethics and reflexive practise by exploring the work of two education ethnographers’ work with children and young people. This paper argues that education ethnographers need to be reflexive in their consideration of ethics, especially when taking into account the variable fields of investigation, the close proximity to children and young people over a longitudinal basis and the potential use of a plethora of research methodologies. Ethnography can be varied and unpredictable and as such have key unprecedented consequences for the use of ethics when working with children and young people